GNC Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism Review

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Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism is a women’s multivitamin that is made by the well-known vitamin company GNC (chances are you’ve found yourself shopping for supplements and powders there once or twice before). Their women’s multivitamin reports being clinically studies, energy boosting, calorie torching, and antioxidant packed. And they also claim to help with other things like hair strength and bone health.

We decided to check it out.

Note: Multivitamins shouldn’t be seen as replacements for a healthy diet or medication. It’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor before beginning a new fitness, nutritional, and/or supplement routine. Individual needs for vitamins and minerals will vary. The list below simply includes our favorite brands and shouldn’t be taken as medical advice.

Ingredients

Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism was formulated with a solid blend of B vitamins, antioxidants, and two concentrated “superfood” blends including an antioxidant blend and energy and metabolism. Of it’s ~30 ingredients, the supplement offers 100% or more of your recommended daily values for 21 vitamins and minerals, and 200% or more of your recommended daily values for 9.

Below, we highlight some the ingredients in Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism, including the ones we deemed as being particularly noteworthy or interesting.

Vitamin D is involved in almost everything we do like building proteins and enzymes, boosting the immune system, and fighting inflammation, all of which are integral to athlete recovery and Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism offers 400% of your daily needs. Because it’s hard to get the right amount from food, you have to get the rest of your daily needs through sun exposure (which is tricky during the winter) and supplementation.

Folic Acid 400 mcg

Whether you’re growing out your nails, fighting depression, or looking to fight inflammation, you want this ingredient in your multi. As athletes you know that some inflammation is good, but too much isn’t, so folic acid may be a plus to active women.

Biotin 300 mcg

ICYDK, that’s a lot of Biotin. 100% of your daily needs to be exact. Biotin is good ingredients luscious locks and it has been shown to boost nail health, which is why it’s typically included in women-specific multi’s.

GNC claims that this multi is “packed with B vitamins to support energy production” and research suggests that B Vitamins may actually have that effect. In addition to Vitamin B7 (Biotin) and Vitamin B9 (Folic Acid), in this multi you can expect to find 50 mg of Vitamin B1 (Thiamin), 50 mg of Vitamin B6, 50 mg of Vitamin B12, 50 mg of Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) , 50 mg of Niacin (Vitamin B3), 50 mg of Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B3), and 400 mcg of Folic Acid (Vitamin B9).

Image from GNC.com

Calcium 500 mg

500 mg of Calcium may only be 50% of your daily needs, it’s actually super rare to see this ingredient in a multivitamin.

Zinc 25 mg

Raise your hand if you’re stressed out. If your hand is up, you may be low in this mineral. Athletes may also be deficient, because exercise may makes us feel great, but it’s still a stressor on our bodies, so athletes in particular tend to be deficient. Why is that an issue? Not enough zinc may dull your taste buds, which ups the chances that you’ll add sugar or salt to your food so getting 25 Mg (or 167% daily values) is a definite positive.

Magnesium 100 mg

Low levels of calcium and magnesium (which often go hand in hand) are known for sparking sugar and salt cravings. Low magnesium levels in particular are known for upping those chocolate cravings. And while a serving of chocolate protein powder is NBD, a chocolate bar every single day might be.

Molybdenum 75 Mcg

This is probably the most surprising ingredient on the list, because it’s not often included in multivitamins, that’s because humans don’t need much of it, and what we do need we usually get from food. It’s basic role is to help us break down fats and carbs for energy. But it’s also abundant in human tooth enamel and may have a role in lowering the risk of tooth decay (NBD for women in their 20’s, but might be important for women 50+).

Super Antioxidant Blend

If you’re wondering what the heck this is, according to GNC, it’s a blend packed with 25 mg alpha-lipoic acid, 2mg of Lutemax® 2020 Lutein, 1 mg of lycopene, 500 mg of turmeric root extract, 400 mcg zeaxanthin, 50 mcg of Astaxanthin, and 10 mg of beta-Cryptoxanthin. Here’s the things: there’s no research specifically how these ingredients work together in a blend. But sciencehas shown consuming antioxidants may be good for your heart health, may help lower your risk of infections and some forms of cancer, and could help with inflammation.

Pill size for GNC Multivitamin

Energy & Metabolism Blend 137 mg

The multi’s namesake, this blend is made up of caffeine anhydrous, green tea extract, eleuthero root extract, and black pepper fruit. To be clear, “caffeine anhydrous” is really just a highly concentrated caffeine powder. Like HIGHLY concentrated. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a teaspoon of caffeine anhydrous is the equivalent of 28 cups of coffee.

One serving, or 2 pills of GNC Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism, packs 100mg of caffeine, which is about the amount of caffeine equivalent to a 6oz cup of coffee.

As for the other ingredients in this blend? Green tea extract is high in antioxidants and some research suggests that the green tea & caffeine combo may be beneficial for weight loss. Eleuthero root extract is an adaptogen that isn’t well studied, but it’s worth noting that while some studies support the conclusion that adaptogens have promise and potential at reducing stress, improving attention, upping endurance, and fighting fatigue. Black pepper fruit also lacks much research-backed claims, but some websites claim it aids in digestion.

Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism Benefits and Effectiveness

CrossFit is my jam. Hot yoga is my new Sunday tradition. Running over the Queensborough bridge is my idea of active recovery. And for me, no day in Central Park is complete without a little game of touch-rugby or frisbee. I may not be as active as a CrossFit Games Athlete, but “active” is likely an understatement.

With my activity level in mind, and the fact that I’ve been taking Flintstone gummies since I was a kid, it’s no surprise that I’m always looking for a supplement to boost my health ( BTW, did you know that 30% of millennial women report taking a multi?). Last month, I decided to try a relatively inexpensive product with big claims (and positive reviews) about increasing energy: GNC Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism.

If this pill was a Tinder date, I’d definitely take it out on a second date. Which is to say, it makes a killer first impression. It has a nice seagreen color, smells like mint, tastes like pre-chewed minty gun (which honestly isn’t terrible compared to other multi’s). Let me repeat myself. This multi doesn’t smell or taste like garbage Or old arugula. Or canned tuna. It smells like mint. Mint!

Yep, I’m officially making my standards higher.

As for the size, it’s big but not too big (*insert that’s what she said joke here*). It’s certainly larger than an your average OTC pain reliever, but I’ve seen (and tried) larger. Visualize of the size of a singleMike & Ike, and you’ll have a decent sense of the size of these buggers.

The bottle says, “take two tablets with food”, so I didn’t stray from the instructions to see how it would affect my tummy without breakfast. But when I took the pills with a breakfast of collagen protein smoothie or 2 spoonfuls (okay, fine, 2.5) of almond butter, I had no stomach issue. And whenever a supplement doesn’t affect my digestive system, I’m seriously ecstatic. So this was a total win (especially considering the pill contains iron, which my stomach has reacted poorly to in the past).

After reading other reviews of the products, I expected Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism to increase my energy levels because the product contains 100 mg of caffeine and the reviews were pretty positive. One women said “This product made me jittery” while another noted “As a Mom of 5 young children I was feeling very much worn down and exhausted all the time, I was finding it hard to get all my chores done and I was always needing naps, I knew I needed to do something so I started searching for a Vitamin […]As soon as I got them, I started taking them and immediately noticed a huge difference in my energy”. And a third wrote, “I DO have a bit more energy than normal. A little more pep in my step, if you will.” But, I’m going to be honest…I didn’t feel any noteworthy effects. Perhaps that’s because consuming two 12 ounce coffee a day is my norm, so the extra caffeine simply didn’t affect me the way it might someone who regularly consumes less caffeine.

The biggest downfall is that I sort of felt like I was flushing all (or at least, most) of the nutrients in the pills down the toilet. A quick science lesson: When it comes to vitamins and minerals, how well we’re able to absorb nutrients, matters a lot (it’s called bioavailability). When we can’t properly absorb the nutrients, we end up excreting them in a funny-colored stream. If my neon-yellow pee-color is any indication, my body wasn’t actually able to absorb the vitamins in Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism. That said, Amazon reviewers are notoriously honest, and there weren’t any reviews that mentioned the that the pill turned their pee neon yellow, so you may not have this side effect. While I didn’t feel the same pep-in-my-step the way Laura from Amazon did, I certainly didn’t feel any worse.

Another potential downfall of this product is that it includes a few blends of ingredients which are not well researched. But that’s the vitamin industry for you and the same can be said about many products in the supplemental market are not well researched, so this should not come as a surprise.

Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism Price

48 cents a day. $3.36 per week. $14.40 per month. That’s how inexpensive this multivitamin is. Seriously. That’s less than a salad at lunch (or at least a salad at lunch in New York City…).

The Takeaway

I think that this product is a great deal. At less than 50 cents a day, it’s among least expensive multivitamins I’ve tried. And it has ~30 different ingredients, 21 of which offer 100 percent or more of recommended daily values. Given the price and ingredient content, I don’t see many drawbacks in incorporating this vitamin into your wellness routine, unless your caffeine sensitive. Plus, it tastes and smells good.

The only two downsides here are the size, so if pills are your nemesis, this baby probably isn’t for you because you have to take two. And the fact that it’s not vegetarian or vegan, which depending on your dietary preferences may be an issue for you.

Gabrielle Kassel (@gk.fitness) is a New York based writer who has a deep affinity for weight training, playing (and watching) rugby, and living mindfully. She currently works at ICE NYC as the social media editor and blog coordinator and she freelances for the internet as a health and fitness writer. In her free time she can be found reading self-help books, bench pressing, or practicing hygge.

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